Rotary winding machine



Oct. 8, 1963 w. L. FULTON 3,106,351

I ROTARY WINDING MACHINE Filed Nov. 3, 1959 4 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 .BY @M y@W fp/@ Oct. 8, 1963 w. 1 FULTON 3,106,351

ROTARY wINnING MACHINE Filed Nov, :5, 1959 5 sheets-sheet 2 ocr. s, 1963w. 1 FULTON ROTARY WINDING MACHINE Filed Nv. 5, 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 5INVENToR. MLU/m4 fa/wmv fama/v Oct. 8, 1963 l w. L. FULTON 3,106,351

v ROTARY WINDING MACHINE Filed Nov. s, 1959 5 sheets-sheet 4 Fi-5:7; E.

f4? BY @7dag Oct. 8, 1963 Filed Nov. 3, 1959 w. L. FULTON ROTARY WINDINGMACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 3,105,351` ROTARY WINDING MACHINE WilliamLeonard Fulton, Franklin Park, Ill., assignor to Standard CoilProdnctsCo., Inc., Melrose Park, Ill., a corporation of Illinois FiledNov. 3, 1959, Ser. No. 850,711 1 Claim. (Cl. 242-9) My present inventionrelates generally to a coil winding machine and more particularly toapparatus having a winding head utilizing a sine bar means forautomatically winding close tolerance coils.

In winding coils for use in high frequencycircuitry, as for example inthe case of television tuners, it is extremely important to maintainvery close tolerances in the physical dimensions of the coils. It is notuncommon for such television tuner coils to have only three or fourturns of wire, in which case even very small errors in the coildiametenthe coil spacing, the pitch of the wire, or the length of-thewire may cause relatively large variations in the coil inductancevalues, thereby necessitating compensating measures. Otherwise, theinductance variation may bring about a highly undesirable lack ofsharpness in tuning at a particular frequency. In the production oftelevision tuners, it is common practice to manually adjust the tunercoils to correct for irregularities and lack of uniformity inproduction. Coils of closer tolerances than are now available may thushelp to eliminate or materially reduceA this need for manual adjustment.

Also, in very exacting scientic apparatus, such as circuitry forprecisedetermination of the earths magnetic field at a particular point, theaccuracy of the results may very well depend upon, among other factors,the accuracy of the winding of the inductance coils used in the circuit.

It is.well known in theart to wind coils manually. The quality of thecoils produced in this manner is of course subject to the skill or lackof skill of the operator.

Consequently, the quality and uniformity of results of this method couldnot always be relied upon. In addition, manual means meant a relativelysmall rate of production of coils per operator, and it has been knownfor a single company to employ iifty or sixty operators at one timeexclusively in turning out various coils, thereby resulting in highlabor costs. This procedure is still being used by some coil windingcompanies.

Other improved machines of the prior art have utilized a source of powerin place of manual operation. In order to provide the required wirelead, or space between successive turns, these improved automaticmachines in addition to some of the older type manually operatedmachines have incorporated in their winding heads a cam device which issynchronized with the rotation of the spindle. When it is desired toalter the wire lead, it is necessary to insert a new cam. Manufacturinga cam, especially the type often needed for Winding coils Withnon-uniformly accelerating and decelerating spacings between turns, is atime consuming, highlyskilled, and very costly job. Since a new cam isneeded for each type of coil, the cost of the cams `alone may be asignificant part of the cost of the entire machine.

In producing a cam in a tool room, the ordinary procedure is to useasine bar. Generally, the instant invention applies the sine bardirectly to the` coil winding machine, thereby completely eliminatingthe involved and costly procedure of manufacturing the cam. Thus, withthis scheme, only one sine bar is required in order to make as manyditferent types of spaced windings as is desirable.

Accordingly, the primary object of my invention is the provision of anovel automatic coil winding machine utilizing a sine bar means forspacing successive turns.

A further object of my invention is the provision of a United safesFaremo 3,156,351 Patented Oct. 8, 1963 ICC novel automatic coil windingmachine which is less costly to build than similar type machines of theprior art.

A still further object of my invention is the provision of a novelautomatic coil Winding machine which produces coils of close tolerancesand high quality.

` The foregoing and other objects of my invention will become apparentin the following description and drawings in which: y

FIGURE 1 shows a first embodiment of my novel sine bar operated windinghead.

FIGURES 1a and lb both show possible special purpose shapes that the gapbar of FIGURE 1 may take.

FIGURE 1c is a detail cross-sectional view of the block 27 assembly ofFIGURE l.

FIGURE 2 is a second embodiment of my novel sine bar operated windinghead with the internal gear mechanism eliminated for purposes ofsimpliiication.

FIGURE 3 is an expanded schematic view of the operating members of mynovel winding head.

FIGURE 4 is a view of side 98 of FIGURE 2 with the cover removed showingthe internal gear mechanism.

FIGURE 5 illustrates the sine bar of FIGURE 2 in a vertical position.

FIGURE 6 illustrates the interaction of the sine bar and the dialindicator.

FIGURE 6a is a geometric representation of the angular relationships ofFIGURE 6.

FIGURE 7 is a top plan View of my novel sine bar operated winding headapplied to the arbors on an intermittently moving conveyor chain.

FIGURE 8 is a schematic top plane view of the basic operations carriedout on my three head coil winding machine. i

Referring first toFIGURE 1 illustrating a first embodiment of my novelsine bar controlled winding head, spindle 21 is caused to rotate by amotor (not shown), and is operatively connected to and synchronized withrack 18 which moves vertically as shown. Rack 18 carries arm 17 uponwhich pin 16 is secured. Pin 16 is located near one end of and acts asthe axis of rotation of sine bar 32, the other end of which has pin 20secured thereon, pin 20 acting as the axis of rotation for-roller 19.Gap bar 22 is secured to wall 24 of winding head 23 and receives movableroller 19 of sine bar 32. Roller 25, which is mounted on pin 26 which inturn is secured to block 27, engages and rides upon sine bar 32. Block27 is constructed such that it does not rotate with spindle 21, butmoves laterally with spindle 21 in response to lateral movement ofroller 25. This arrangement may be of the type illustrated in FIGURE 1cwherein end disc 36`is secured to spindle 21 at rim 137 while block 27rests against disc 36 by means of bearings 139, and also communicateswith spindle 21 by means of bearings 141. Block 27 rests on rollers 142,thereby preventing rotary motion of block 27 about spindle 21.

Biasing spring 28 is secured at one end thereof to side 24 of windinghead 23 and is secured at the other end thereof to block 27. Wire 5 isfed through spindle 21, transporting pulleys 30 and wire guide 31 toarbor 15 which is mounted upon rotaryy index table 33. The internalmechanism by which rack 18 is caused to move vertically insynchronization with the rotation of spindle 21 is of the same type aswill be disclosed in a second embodiment of my invention to be discussedlater in this application.

As spindle 21 rotates, rack 18 moves upward carrying along sine bar 32,which rests upon gap bar 22 through roller 19 As sine bar 32 movesupward, it causes roller 25 to move laterally and away from side 24.Roller 25 in turn acts on spindle 21 through block 27 causing spindle 21to move laterally in the same direction as roller 25. Spring 28, whichis secured to block 27, biases spindle 21 in a direction opposite tothat of roller 25 so as to bring about intimate engagement betweenroller 25 and sine bar 32 and between roller 19 and gap bar 22. Thespindle 21 when it moves laterally carries with it wire guide 31,thereby moving wire relative to fixed arbor so as to establish anyparticular lead or spacing between successive turns.

Sine bar 32 acts in such a manner that it has a eamrning effect onroller 25. The angle that the sine bar 32 makes with side 24 during anygiven winding operation determines the resulting camming motion, whichin turn determines the coil lead. The gap bar 22 thickness governs theangle which sine bar 32 makes with side 24. Thus, it is readily seenthat it is the thickness of gap bar 22 which establishes the lead of thecoil.

For example, if gap bar 22 were removed from the machine sine bar 32would become vertical and no lead would result. By inserting gap bars ofvarying thicknesses, the angle between sine bar 32 and side 24 can bevaried to produce a lead of any dimension within the limits of thedevice.

Although gap bar 22 is shown as being of rectangular shape, it may ofcourse take on any desirable shape. Thus, if the gap bar 22 were angledas shown in FIGURE la, a coil of uniformly accelerated spacing would beproduced. That is, the rst two turns might be adjacent but the spacingbetween subsequent turns would increase in dimension uniformly. If gapbar 22 was peaked at the center of its length as shown in FIGURE lb itwould be possible to wind a coil with uniformly accelerated spacing upto point 134 and then uniformly decelerated spacing from point 134 topoint 135. Other selected gap bar shapes will of course bring about manyvaried and desirable coil spacing arrangements.

A second embodiment of my invention is illustrated in FIGURES 2-6. Asbest shown in FIGURE 2, the design of FIGURE l is deviated from bymounting the sine bar assembly rigidly to the spindle. Specifically,sine bar 35 is pinned to easing 37 (FIGURES 2 and 4) at point 38, whilecasing 37 is fixedly secured to rod 40 (means not shown). The upper partof sine bar 35 contains slot 39 through which bolt 136 passes in orderto secure sine bar 35 to casing 37 at a given point of slot 39. Thus,while sine bar 35 is pivotable about pin 3S (FIGURES 2 and 3), it may besecured at any angular position with respect to slide 41 of case 42 bysimply fastening bolt 136. Slidable rod is movable through winding headcase 42 on bearings 43 (FIGURE 4), while one end of rod 4t) is securedto the upper end of block 41. Spindle 44, while resting on bearings 45is movable together with block 41 by positioning block 41 betweencollars Si) and 81 (FIGURE 4) which are fastened to spindle 44 andcommunicate with block 41 through bearings 82 and 83 respectively. Dialindicator 47 is mounted on protrusions 48 of casing 37, the contact tip49 (FIGURE 5) of which engages right angular section 56 of sine bar 35.Roller is mounted on arm 52 of movable rack 53 by means of pin 51. Bar91 is secured to sine bar 35 so as to receive roller 5).

The operating mechanism of my novel winding head is best seen in FIGURES3 and 4. The motor (not shown) drives flywheel 57 of single revolutionclutch 58 which is mounted on shaft 59. Worm gear 6I), on shaft 59,drives spur gear 66 (through spiral gear 63 and shaft 64) which in turndrives rack 53 vertically until latch A disengages the single revolutionclutch 58 thereby halting rotation of shaft 59. De-energizing theelectric clutch allows the rack 53 to fall thereby positioning itselffor a recycle of the mechanism.

Spur gear 63 and electric clutch 65 are joined by shaft 64 in a rigidassembly. Electric clutch plate 65 is joined rigidly to spur gear 66 byshaft 64. When clutch 65 is energized then spur gear 66 can support rack53; when clutch 65 is cle-energized, then the rack 53 may fall becausethere is no impediment to rotation of gear 66 and shaft 64. Side 69 ofrack 53 contains a number of tapped holes 70 spaced in rows a flixeddistance apart. In one of these tapped holes a block 71 is inserted, thepurpose of which will be explained later. Secured to side 69 of rack 53is arm 52 upon which is mounted roller 50.

While spur gear 62 (FIGURE 4) may directly engage gear 155i), only auni-directional drive would result. Spur gear 7 S is an idler gear usedto change direction of shaft 44 from that of the input shaft 59. Gear 62is engaged with gear 153. Movement of plate F will cause gears 79 or 153to engage gear 1% to change direction. One end of shaft or spindle 44passes through casing 37 resting on bearings 46, and carries at itsother end, wire guide 191 which rotates about arbor 15. The fixedlinkage between block 37 and spindle 44 shown in FIGURE 4 as members 46and 41 with collars 80 and 81 is diagrammatically indicated in FIGURE 3as member 84. One possible dial indicator 47 which may be used is shownin FIGURE 3 as having a contact tip 49 comprising the lower portion ofdial rack which engages spur gear 86 to which dial pointer 87 isattached. By properly positioning dial pointer 87, any desired angularposition of sine bar 35 may be obtained.

It should be noted in FIGURE 3 that for the purpose of clarity sine bar`35 has been shown in front of casing 37, whereas as best seen in FIGURE4, it is actually positioned behind casing 37.

Spool 38 feeds `wire 5 through spindle 44, wire guide 101, and aroundarbor '15. Spring 89, which is secured at one end to winding head case42 and at the other end to casing 37, biases sine bar assembly 90laterally to the left so as to bring about intimate contact betweenmember 91 of sine bar 35 and roller 56. Meanwhile spur gear 66 drivesrack v53 upward in response to the action of worm 60 on spiral gear 63.Rack 53 carries arm 52 and roller 50 which through contact with member91 of sine bar 35 causes the entire sine bar assembly to move laterallyto the right, thereby causing spindle 44 and guide 101 to move laterallyto the right and maintaining a eertain spacing between successive turnsof wire 5 being wound on arbor 15. IIt is obvious that by merelychanging the angular position of sine bar 35 as in `the vertical sinebar setting of FIGURE 5 for example where a coil of no lead is produced,one can establish any desired coil lead -within the limits of thedevice.

Referring now to FIGURES 2 and 3, as rack 53 is raised by small spurgear 66, the tapped holes 70 rise in synchronization with spindle 44.Block 71 eventually rises to a point where it trips a lever A so thatpin B stops rotation of the single revolution clutch and shafts 59 and44. Flywheel `'57 continues to rotate. Rack 53 remains in the upperposition funtil electric clutch 65 is de-energized. De-energization ofthis clutch disengages spur gear 66 thus allowing rack 53 to return.Under ordinary conditions, some damage would eventually occur due to therapid return of the rack mechanism. To prevent damage, and also toprovide lubrication for the moving parts within the head, it is best totill the bottom of the winding head with approximately one quart of amedium viscosity lubricating oil.

Although not shown in the drawings, the winding head is simply mountedon a lath-type cross slide, from which it is possible Ito position thecoil in relation to the coil form to a degree of accuracy of thousandthsof an inch. Calibration of the dial indicator may be accomplished in thefollowing manner. Referring to FIGURES 6 and 6a, the control tip 49 ofdial indicator 47 is positioned a distance X from pivot 511, thisdistance X being equal to the distance X along sine bar 35 that roller50 moves for a given number of turns n of spindle 44. For purposes ofillustration, let 11:10 such that a decade dial reading may be obtained.It is readily seen from the geometrie simplification of `FIGURE 6a thattriangle ABC is congruent lwith triangle ADF where DA=AC=h the change inheight of contact tip 49 for n=l0 turns of spindle 44. The distance hthat point A moves from its original position C for 11:10 turns ofspindle 44 is obviously equal to the length of the coil wound. Thislength L is equal to the number of` turns of wire multiplied by thecenter to center distance between wires d. Therefore h=L=il0d. But thecenter to center distance lbetween wires d is merely the sum of thewidth of the wire w and the spacing distance between `wires s. Thusd=w+s and h=10 (w-l-s). Hence the dial reading is directly proportional'to the sum of w-i-s, thereby enabling one to exactly tix the lead orspacing between adjacent turns of wire.

` lf for example with n='10, a wire whose diameter is .030 is to bewound, andV it is requiredl that no spacing exist between adjacentturns. the indicator dial reads .300". If a spacing of .0011 is desiredbetween adjacent turns, the sine bar is tipped until theindicator reads.310. yIf a spacing of .005" is desired between turns, the dial settingwould be .350" etc. By this` arrangement of dial indicator and sine barassembly, and as noted before by utilizing a lathe type cross slide formounting the Winding head, it is possible to position a turn of wir-e ona coil'within an accuracy of tenths of thousandths of an inch. v

lIn FIG-URE 8, a top plan view of a coil winding machine in schematicform is shown illustrating the basic operation of a three headedadaptation of my novel coil winding head. lIn this machine, head A windsone coil as previously described. The arbor then indexes to head B wherea second coil is wound, and then to head C where a third coil may bewound. The arbor is then vindexed to station D Where acetone is pouredon to brushes and capillary action conducts it tothe coil. usually has acovering of Celanese and nylon in approximate equal proportions. Theacetone dissolves the Celanese layer of the coil :and cements the coilstogether. They are then dried by the action of hot air at stations E.After drying, the vvires between arbors are cut at wire cutting stationF, and shortly thereafter the completed coil is ejected at station G.After ejection, the bare arbor indexes to station H vvhere a fresh coilform is inserted prior to winding.

The basic operations of the machine shown in FIG- URE v8 are carriedover to FIGURE 7 except that the arbors intermittently move on aconveyor chain rather than a rotary table. The conveyor chain scheme hasthe advantage of enabling a great many arbors to be used, therebyallowing a long drying period and resulting in a better coil wound at ahigher speed. IIn such a machine it is necessary that the wire guidehave sufficient clearance while revolving around the arbor such that i=twill not strike the wire from the previous winding.- Although the rotarymachine provides sutlicient wire guide clearance, prior attempts atconveyor type machines were not successful due to the fact that thearbors were positioned at right angles to the conveyor chainvvith thetresult that the winding Iwire guide struck the wire from the previouscoil. 'In the embodiment of FIGURE 7, however, I have lined up thearbors and the spindle of the winding head The wire used The sine bar istipped until and positioned both angularly with respect to the conveyorchain, thereby providing adequate wire guide clearance and allowing.fuse of the conveyor chain method of coil production with its resultingadvantages.V

Thus in my invention and its various embodiments, I have provided anautomatic coil winding machine comprising a winding head lutilizing asine bar means for regulating the spacing between successive turns,thereby eliminating `the need `for the conventionally used cam means andresulting in significantly lower machine costs. A cam which in the pastmay have cost a few hundred dollars to manufacture can with my inventionbe replaced with a gap bar accomplishing the same purpose but at a costof only twenty or thirty dollars. Considering that for each differentcoil a new cam is required, the saving is indeed substantial. 'Inaddition, d have provided a means of providing very high qualityV coilsof close tolerances both rapidly and efliciently.

Although lI have herein described preferred embodiments of my novelinvention, many variations and modications will now be apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and I thei'efore prefer to be limited, not by thespeciic disclosure herein but only by the appending clairn` I claim:

In a coil Winding machine, a winding head comprising a rotatable spindlehaving an axis of rotation; means for rotating the spindle about itsaxis; a sine bar mounted for translation in a direction parallel to theaxis of the spindle; adjustable means for selectively positioning thesine bar at an angle to said axis, other than to present a surfaceinclined to said axis; means for moving said sine bar Vparallel to saidaxis at a speed proportional to the angular velocity of the rotatablespindle; means connectsaid sine ybar and said spindle for moving saidspindle along its axis in accordance with the translated position ofsaid sine bar; la wire guide on said spindle; said means for moving saidsine bar including slidable means engaging said sine bar; means formoving said slidable means in a direction normal to the direction oftranslation of the sine bar and for mov-ing said sine bar in a directionparallel to the axis of said spindle; indicating means for indicatingsaid angle and means connecting said sine bar to said indicating meansfor operating the indicating means, said angular position of said sinebar determining the rate of translation of said spindle along its axis.

References Cited in the iile of this patent UNTTED STATES PATENTS966,046 Noonan Aug. 2, 1910 1,799,229 Hanna Apr. 7, 1931 2,445,109Ferguson July 113, 1948 2,782,809 Smallridge Peb. 26, 1957 2,855,159-Mallina Oct. 7, 1958 2,861,601 Marzolf INov. 25, 1958 2,884,791 EnstromMay 5, 1959 2,982,488 Bailey May 2, 1961

